La Jornada: Los Pinos, previously destined for the elite, yesterday was a great playground

Among the fallen leaves of the trees and the grass of the Los Pinos Cultural Complex there are small beings: ants, spiders, scale insects, crickets and other insects that this Sunday were the center of admiration of the visitors who attended the Festival of the Forest Monsters: A Fierce Celebration, with which the activities for Children’s Day, which is celebrated on April 30, began.

With painting workshops, dancing, theatrical presentations, talisman making, seed exchange, concerts, picnics and even a birthday party, the former presidential residence, previously reserved for the enjoyment of leaders, was the center of fun for the little ones.

The Alas y Raíces program of the federal Ministry of Culture, organizer of these activities, is also celebrating its 30th anniversary, which is why a special edition of a National Lottery ticket went on sale to commemorate this project.

From 11 a.m., dozens of parents they took the gardens and paths of the cultural space to take your children to meet nature. In the garden, the little ones learned about insects, to care for them, protect them, not touch them and respect them.

Among the stalls, the children looked at the ice creams and chocolates with amazed eyes. Others played with a dinosaur bottarga that invited them to eat a delicious vanilla snow.

On the descent, towards the Adolfo López Mateos hall, they were able to record their fiercest roars and make melodies with their screams. On one side were samples of bells, strings, and musical instruments that they could play to delight in the sounds they created.

There, Santi and Natalia, two 4-year-old friends, met and embraced each other while giving each other wide smiles. The two little ones, along with their parents, also went to play at the Miguel Alemán house, in the Nishizawa living room.

That space became a projection room with the playful installation Alpha, happy accidents, that amazed the children with colors, varied electronic rhythms and images with which they danced and jumped. Some remained seated on the poufs, while they curiously observed the figures that were captured on the walls.

On the tennis court, the interactive play Horizonte, performed by MákinaDT, enthralled the minors, who surfed on imaginary boards and rolled through the waves. The children and their parents played and laughed while they walked through an imaginary passage in order to avoid falling into the waters of the mar.

Later, the ravine served as a setting for entire families to enjoy interactive storytelling 10 ducklings, by Israel Santiago, in which the children applauded the adventures of the rubber animals who made a journey on the high seas.

In that same area, the little ones played rolling down the steep hill, decorated with small flowers. On one side, a girl brought her dollhouse, with which she played to look out of the window, through which she saw the ducklings board a toy train and, later, begin a boat trip.

The heat gave way around 2 p.m., when the clouds interceded against the ferocious Sun, and a light wind cooled the visitors. The waters and snows once again eased the dehydration. Hunger also began to make its presence felt. The parents lay down on the grass, exhausted; The children, tireless, ran euphorically through the area that previously served as a landing strip for the presidential helicopters.

Balls and balls

The couples also made the grass a bed for caresses in the shade of the trees, where they enjoyed the music; They spread blankets and had picnics around the children, who ran through the open space flying small kites with which they made a colored maze and others learned to ride a bicycle. Then the letter of soccer and several groups with balls and balls took the open space as a field, while in a back-and-forth they ran towards an imaginary goal.

In the area called Leisure Laboratories, in cabin 2, the Maps of Charms activity was carried out, directed by the creator Sandra Gasca, where the children invented maps and places using their imagination. Later, the children made cardboard masks under the instruction of artist Polo Muro.

In the enchanted pool of the Miguel Alemán house, the children played among a jungle of mushrooms, while the parents waited on the side. The little ones climbed the stems and crowns of the fungal kingdom, marveling at the colors and shapes of the effigies. Some wondered: “Are there mushrooms that big? I really like their colors!”

The concerts began at 4 p.m. with Jammy; At 5:00 p.m., the Crew Members of the OVNI took the stage and for the closing the Argentine Luis Pescetti performed with his characteristic rhythms, which made the little ones laugh, while the parents moved their hands to follow the rhythm of the music with them.

This is how families enjoyed this hot Sunday, as a preamble to the celebration on Thursday, Children’s Day, with laughter, jumping, and smiles.